You could easily miss it. From the outside, the building looks vacant. If you drive by too quickly you probably wouldn't notice the former Lakeshore Clinic building at 515 State Street.
But the building is far from empty. Since November it has served as the permanent location for the Ithna-Asheri Muslim Association of the Northwest (IMAN), an Eastside Muslim congregation that had been searching for a home for several years.
Acquiring the property ended several years of efforts at establishing a community presence. According to Jawad Khaki, one of the group's founders who also serves as IMAN's president, settling into their own space will help the congregation thrive and grow.
Khaki, who serves as IMAN's director, is of Indian descent and was born in Tanzania. Following high school in Pakistan and a university education in London, he came to the United States 20 years ago. He moved to the Seattle area in 1989 after accepting a position with Microsoft, where he is a corporate vice president of Windows Networking and Device Technologies.
IMAN began informally soon after Khaki arrived on the Eastside. Married with three children, he knew he wanted to teach them about their history, their religion and its values. Khaki, along with several other Shi'ite families, started a small Sunday school which they initially operated on weekends out of each other's basements. By 1997, IMAN had grown to the point where the group formally incorporated as a religious nonprofit organization.
"It was the children who brought us together," Khaki said.
While IMAN was a growing congregation, the variety and irregularity of meeting spaces, which included meetings at the Bellevue and Kirkland Women's Club and Bellevue Community College and a weekend school at the Redmond Town Center, prompted trying to locate their own space.
"As our activities became regular the need for a permanent home became more than obvious," Khaki said.
Roughly four years ago the groups began efforts to build a mosque in Bellevue. But concerns over parking and traffic, among others, led to a protracted permitting process. After several years Khaki said the group chose to refocus its energies elsewhere.
"The process was slow, and I am confident that it would have worked out over time. But we wanted to build a mosque, not get involved in a lengthy process. The bureaucratic side was taking too much of our time," he said.
As a result, the congregation looked for a building they could acquire. They learned of the Lakeshore Clinic's availability last summer and, with the help of a major donor, were able to buy it in full.
"This was a great find for us. No major work needed to be done. It is more than adequate for our needs, and it even has parking," he said. "It's been great having a place where we can worship without having to drag our rugs in each time!"
The building should accommodate IMAN's slow but steady growth. At present, the congregation has roughly 90 members. Ten to 40 people typically attend prayers. The Sunday school serves roughly 60 children each week. Classes start for children as young as 5, and continues through age 18.
"We teach Islamic history and Islamic values. It is important children learn a sense of their culture, especially when many of them we're not born in the United States," he said.
Khaaki hopes that having IMAN in a permanent home will help illustrate the diversity within the Muslim community.
"I think Muslim diversity is not so well understood in America. Most Muslims are not Arab, for instance, and Indonesia is the largest Muslim country. Muslims live all over the world. In our small congregation there are people from India, Europe, the Middle East and the Ivory Coast, among other places," he said.
Understanding is one of the key elements IMAN aims to promote, both about Muslims and Americans.
"I think many parts of the world don't understand America. We, as Americans and as Muslims, have to work to be better understood," he said.
IMAN is still settling into their new home. Khaki laughs with a broad smile when he says there will soon be a sign on the building. In the future, Khaki said he expects the congregation to work with other churches on various projects. In the past, for instance, IMAN has worked with Habitat for Humanity. Last year it undertook efforts to raise money for the earthquake in Iran. More recently, with a coalition of Buddhist and Hindu groups, they raised money for victims of last December's tsunami in south Asia.
As for being a Muslim congregation during a time when many Arab Muslims are hostile toward America, Khaki said he has experienced no backlash or harsh looks.
"It is important to remember that we are an American-Muslim group. I am an American citizen; this is my home. Regarding the war in Iraq, of course our hearts go out to the soldiers, too. The goodness of humanity is out there. It takes two to tango, as they say, which applies to any conflict as well. I want IMAN to be a good example to the community. We do have a common purpose. I hope and believe we can prosper in Kirkland," Khaki said.
The goal for IMAN, he added, is to be a model community in Kirkland.
"We are very happy to be in Kirkland - it's a very good city. I think we may bring in a little diversity, too," Khaki said.
For more information on IMAN, go to www.iman-wa.org.
Doug Schwartz is the editor of the Kirkland Courier. He can be reached at 822-9166 or doug@kirklandcourier.com.[[In-content Ad]]
